Coloured lights darting across the sky in odd patterns and bright-coloured orbs in a stationary triangle formation are just a few of the 1,101 unidentified flying objects reported in this year’s Canadian UFO Survey, released Tuesday by the Winnipeg-based Ufology Research.

The group, helmed by Chris Rutkowski, has been collecting UFO case data for the past 29 years. This year’s survey even includes six reports of “saucer-shaped objects”.

Rutkowski, a University of Manitoba communications staffer by day, moonlights as a UFO researcher. He’s written 10 books on the subject. In the near 30 years he’s been scanning the skies, he and the group of like-minded researchers have compiled more than 19,000 UFO sightings in Canada since 1989.

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The truth is out there — or the witnesses are, at least.

Coloured lights darting across the sky in odd patterns and bright-coloured orbs in a stationary triangle formation are just a few of the 1,101 unidentified flying objects reported in this year’s Canadian UFO Survey, released Tuesday by the Winnipeg-based Ufology Research.

The group, helmed by Chris Rutkowski, has been collecting UFO case data for the past 29 years. This year’s survey even includes six reports of "saucer-shaped objects".

Rutkowski, a University of Manitoba communications staffer by day, moonlights as a UFO researcher. He’s written 10 books on the subject. In the near 30 years he’s been scanning the skies, he and the group of like-minded researchers have compiled more than 19,000 UFO sightings in Canada since 1989.

"It’s from a wide variety of sources, including official sources and civilian sources," Rutkowski said, adding much of the official data come from Transport Canada, military and police reports.

Quebec had the highest number of reported UFO sightings in 2017 — 518, compared to 430 in 2016. On the lower end of the spectrum, two sightings were reported in Nunavut and three in Yukon.

Rutkowski isn’t saying little green men live among us.

"We aren’t making any claims about this — we’re not saying aliens are here. It’s just what people and officials are reporting. It’s a persistent phenomenon and it attracts a lot of interest from the public," he said, adding the phenomenon needs more scientific attention.

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Most of the cases reported in 2017 have some sort of explanation. Only eight per cent were judged "unexplainable" by the researchers and that figure drops to less than one per cent when only higher-quality cases — with concrete data — are considered.

Forty-three per cent of reported UFO sightings in 2017 were simple lights in the sky.

That being said, some of the cases don’t have easy explanations, Rutkowski said.

In the mid-1970s, Rutkowski was studying astronomy at the U of M. People would occasionally report UFOs to the department and he had what he called a scientific curiosity in the cases. He started talking to people who reported sightings and travelling across the province to investigate.

"People were seeing something and were not making it up," he said. "Some were honest mistakes, and in other cases, I couldn’t figure it out."

History

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